Interview on Reporting Medication Errors This assignment is about interviewing and discussing with a pharmacist methods to report medication errors per facility’s policy and ways to encourage nurses to report medication errors promptly. This was a face-to-face interview with pharmacist BB at work. He is a qualified professional pharmacist and appropriate for this assignment. The interview began with this question: What is a medication error? “A medication error is basically a failure to comply with the hospital medication administration process policies.” What cause medication errors? “Medication errors can be caused by several factors. But the most common one is when the nurse does not scan the patient’s armband to verify his or her identity and administer the medication to the wrong patient.” What can nurses do to prevent this type of incident from …show more content…
This form is submitted to the pharmacy department so the supervisor or manager can follow through. The physician must be notified before submitting the form, there is a section on the form requiring for the time and name of the physician notified.” What are other ways to report medication errors? “Always notify your team leader or supervisor of the incident so it can be reported accordingly. A medication error may cause serious adverse drug events and can be harmful to the patient. Also, it can cost a patient’s life and the hospital thousands of dollars. Therefore, all medication errors must be reported following the appropriate protocol to prevent serious adverse events.” Although there are some consequences to each medication error, it is imperative to report it in order to improve patient care and safety. Medication errors can significantly affect patient safety (Elden & Ismail 2016). Medication errors do not only occur during the administration stage, they can occur from the ordering and down to the provision stage (Radley,